


You Are Who You Are

by SpyVsTailor



Category: The Tick (TV 2017)
Genre: Existential Crisis, Friendship, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-22
Updated: 2018-03-22
Packaged: 2019-04-06 07:28:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,132
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14051961
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SpyVsTailor/pseuds/SpyVsTailor
Summary: Dot finds the Tick having an existential crisis while waiting for Arthur to get home from work.





	You Are Who You Are

**Author's Note:**

> There are not enough Dot and Tick interaction fics, so I wanted to remedy this.

"Arthur? Are you home yet?"

She had let herself into his apartment, arms full of goodies and freebies from her mom's and Walter's house. They could never send her away with a simple hug, there was always baked goodies from her mom, or new kinds of insoles for shoes from Walter, and every now and then, like this time, a bunch of toiletries because apparently her mom and Walter couldn't accept the fact that Dot and Arthur were grown ups who could buy toothbrushes and washcloths for themselves.

Stepping into the kitchen, she dropped the bags on the counter and looked about, setting Arthur's spare keys down beside the bags and moving into the living room, where a giant blue form sat on the couch staring blankly at the wall.

"Tick? What are you doing?" She asked.

He blinked.

She could have sworn she saw a tear glistening on his cheek.

"I'm lost in the cerebral grey juice that is me," he replied in that deep, grander than normal tone of his.

"Thinking about you?"

"Am I the me I think I am or am I a whole other me? I could be anyone. I could be a mailman!" He looked up at her as she slumped warily down on the sofa beside him. She had just gotten off a shift, had run to her parents, then back into the city to drop the goodies off with Arthur, before going to crash for a few hours before her nightclasses. It was too long of a day for her to really have time for the Tick and his offbeat character. He had too much energy even when he was down for her to keep up.

Still, she wasn't a monster, so she made the time for his existential crisis. "Still have no memory of who you were before all of this, huh?"

"I get whiffs of it every now and then, like the faint smells of a wet dog running around your house with all the windows and doors wide open," he explained.

Dot looked over at him, studying him hard.

He was very clearly just a man in a costume much like Arthur's, at least he looked like that.

"Did...have you ever taken that off?" She asked, pointing to his headpiece. The medical student and paramedic in her said that he probably had some kind of head trauma or psychological trauma in order to forget himself. Logically, she knew, if she were his medic or doctor, she would look for physical signs first, then send him to a specialist if that proved inconclusive.

"Uh, what now?" He asked, leaning in towards her, struggling to turn his head to look at her like a normal person.

She nearly laughed. He very clearly had troubles with fine motor mobility in that suit.

"Your costume, have you ever taken it off?"

"I...isn't it a part of me?" He inquired.

"I...don't think so. Have you taken a shower yet, Tick?" She asked.

"Yes."

"In the nude?"

"Well, that's a curious question, am I naked now? Or am I not naked then?"

She shook her head and stood up. The shower thing wasn't important, she would get back to that later, but first, "do you trust me, Tick?"

He blinked at her, before grinning boyishly. "Yes."

"Okay," she moved her hands slowly towards the helmet base.

He leaned away from them, holding up a finger. "Now, slow your hot dog cart, young Dot!" He exclaimed. "What are you up to?"

"I want to see if maybe you have a brain injury, it could explain why you don't remember who you are," she explained in her calm, paramedic-on-the-scene voice.

He blinked up at her, before narrowing his eyes. "See? There's where I have a problem...in this suit I am the Tick, but if you were to remove me from me would I still be me and if not, would I have a secret identity, because I think those are just crackerjack boxes full of nuts."

She rolled her lips between her teeth, before saying, "Tick, if you want to find out who you are, this could help. Now do you trust me?"

"Okay, Dot, but only because you have that same special something Arthur has, but in a much different package."

Carefully, she continued to reach out for his helmet, hands curling around his jaw, heading back, trying to find where it might separate from his suit. She couldn't seem to find any way of removing the helmet piece, but the more she felt the helmet, the more she was convinced it wasn't a part of him. It was cool and metallic to the touch.

"My biggest concern," the Tick said as she continued to explore the headpiece, "is what if I'm not nice? What if I were built for evil? What if I am a robot and I was programmed to kill? I don't know if I could handle being the bad guy to my good guy. What if I never paid my taxes? What if-"

"Tick," she pulled back to look at him, hands on either side of his face. "I don't know what you were, but you're you now and you're a good guy."

He blinked at her, before tilting his head. "What if I'm an alien and my ship crashed on earth and I was here to enslave the entire human race?"

She smiled. "You're not an alien, Tick."

"I could be an alien. Superion is an alien...maybe we're brothers?"

"Maybe you're a time traveler," she teased, going back to inspecting his headgear. "And you were sent back in time to defeat the Terror?"

"Maybe..." he fell deep into thought.

Dot felt a large hand settle on her forearm, gathering her attention.

The Tick gazed up at her contentedly. "Whatever I am, little Dot, I'm glad I have Arthur and you and Overkill and Dangerboat and Tinfoil Kevin and -"

"I get it, Tick," she stopped him. "We're glad we have you too. You're a good friend."

He beamed at her. "You called me a friend."

"Yeah," she replied.

"I always thought you didn't care much for me. Like we got off on the wrong foot and they were both left."

Dot was quiet, shoving a strand of hair back behind her ear. "It's not that, Tick. But Arthur's been through so much, I was worried."

"I know. You love him. He's your brother and he needed protecting. He is awfully small...I bet he was even smaller as a child!" He pointed a finger at her. "You were the super hero he needed."

"Yeah, well..." she wasn't praised often and it was hard for her to accept it with grace. "Just sit still, I think I found the button."


End file.
